


Welcome Beauty, Banish Fear

by orphan_account



Category: Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Beauty and the Beast AU, F/M, fairytale AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-13 10:22:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16015925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: In the heart of the frozen Eternian Perennial forest stands a forgotten castle, home to a forgotten monster. He remains there, cursed, cold, and alone. He lives, not tied to blood in his veins nor to his heart, but to a quickly wilting flower.On the edge of the forest, Edea Lee lives in a quiet cottage with her mother, wishing but never daring to leave until the day her father vanishes in the woods looking for a rose like no other.There is no option for her but to venture into the forest.(A Beauty and the Beast Bravely AU.)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> ((This was an AU that draws inspiration from Disney's Beauty and the Beast the French 1946 film, as well as the classic French fairy tale.
> 
> The title comes from a passage in the classic fairy tale: 
> 
> _Welcome Beauty, banish fear,_  
>  _You are queen and mistress here._  
>  _Speak your wishes, speak your will,_  
>  _Swift obedience meets them still._
> 
> __  
> I hope you enjoy this story! Much thanks to Komatsujo and chacusha for reading through the prologue for me.))  
> 

In a frozen forest of black trees, there stood a castle that had lost all air of jubilation. The tapestries that decorated the stone walls was richly colored and finely woven, and the china that set empty on the grand table every night was elegantly crafted, and yet there were no festivities.

Here lived a dark, lonely knight, handsome but as glacial as the ice that surrounded his estate. He lived with his servants, whom he neither abused nor doted on. Rather, he made very little notice of them at all. No weary pilgrim ever crossed the threshold, nor was any visitor invited in. Such was the way the knight dwelled.

One late winter’s night, colder than any that had ever been, there was a knock on his door. 

His guardsman had retired for the evening after working through the week with a cold, and so it was by chance that the knight himself was the one to answer the rapping. 

On the iced-over floor of his courtyard, an woman was keeled over, barely supporting herself. Her eyes were obscured by the ratty old hood of her traveling cape, but the knight could see the deep wrinkles that gathered around her mouth as she spoke.

“Please, my lord, a night of shelter for a weary traveler.” 

The knight watched as the beldam reached into her pocket cape and revealed a single white rose. It was in full bloom, lush and still deeply fragrant despite the chill it must have grown in. He had never seen any flower like it. 

The beldam held it up to the light. “As payment, my lord.” 

The knight stared coldly at the woman. “No traveler would trespass onto my estate and be offered residence, especially not for such a pitiful token. Leave at once, or leave by force.”

The woman’s eyes remained unseen as she wordlessly tucked the rose away and unclasped her cape. When it fell away, what stood there was no beldam. In her place was a lithe, white-skinned creature, too terrifying to be beautiful. Her eyes were black, and it chilled the knight’s soul upon realizing that no life reflected in them. 

“You have spurned a fairy from your home. For that, there is no Celestial that could help you.” 

The knight sank to his knees as the fairy’s wings unfolded—huge, paper-thin, and butterfly like. She lifted off the ground and smiled sardonically down at the man. 

“Oh, but it would hardly be  _ interesting _ if I just put you away now. There’s no sport in that. Rather, my lord, since you are so cold and so lifeless, I might as well do you a favor and make your outside reflect your inside. And your poor servants. You treat them as if they were spirits, thin as air. How will you manage when they have no hands to make your bed, and no legs to run your messages?”

“I—” 

The knight’s protest turned into a roar of pain as his body turned blisteringly hot, his figure changing and warping. Above the convulsions, he could hear similar cries coming from the castle around him as his servants were cursed as well. 

When the ache had finally ended, he weakly pushed himself to his hands, hearing a terrible scraping sound as he did so. The fairy had gone. All that remained of her presence was the white rose, cushioned gently in a small mound of snow. As the knight pressed his palms against the stone floor, he realized that he could no longer feel the fire that had seized his body seconds ago. Neither could he feel the cold of the ice that skid underneath his hand. 

With a flash of horror, the young knight realized he could no longer feel anything.


	2. Visitation

There lay a small village at the edge of the Perennial Forest, known both for their academics and for their strong apothecary herbs that flourished in the frozen ground. On the very edge of the town was a small stone cottage, where lived the Duchess of Eternia and her daughter.

The Duchess was a frail lady who the villagers rarely saw past the front gate, although neighbors could hear occasional lilting voice singing wordless melodies. Besides this, there was very little evidence to the outside world that she existed at all. 

Their daughter was a petite young woman with thick blonde hair and a very fair complexion. Although she had a striking appearance and great wit, she held none of the grace or patience that was to be expected of a lady with her background. She could be seen outside quite often, either pulling up weeds from their modest garden with a frustrated look on her face, or practicing swordsmanship. Her name was Edea. 

And at the turn of every season, the Duke would visit. 

\---

 

“You’ve grown taller, Edea,” the Duke said as he greeted his daughter by the door. She rolled her eyes. 

“Hardly. I haven’t grown since I was thirteen.”

Edea was grasped into a hug by her father, but could only enjoy it for a second before he pulled away to look past her. She followed his gaze to the frosted window, where a thin figure sat, her back to the cold autumn sun. 

“She’s not getting any better,” Edea said, the smile falling from her face. “I think she’s in pain, but she won’t tell me. I’ve been doing all that I can.”

Braev closed his eyes. “I know you have.” 

As Edea opened the door, the only sound was the scuff of boots against masonry. 

“Mother, I found something while I was outside.” 

Mazher turned her head slightly and let out a gasp of joy when she saw her husband, and neither Edea or Braev missed the wince that came after. Still, they remained silent as she held her arms out to her family. 

“Oh, my sweet Braev,” Mazher sighed as the man moved past the dining table and into his wife’s embrace. He kissed her brow.

“How I’ve missed you, my angel.” 

Near the doorway, Edea covered her reddening face with a hand and did her best to keep from retching. 

“Father, how long can you stay this time?” Edea asked once her parents had pulled themselves apart. Her father frowned. 

“Not long, I’m afraid. Only for tonight. The Council has been in terrible dispute with the Marquis Crowe, and he’s threatening civil war between Eternia and Infinitum. And Heinkel warns me that we might be on the verge of violence with Florem. I’m on my way there now to negotiate with the Matriarch.” 

Edea scoffed. “As if that country could produce a decent soldier. Their men and women alike would retreat if they so much as frayed their hems.” 

Mahzer hushed her daughter, but Braev let out an amused chuckle. The cottage fell silent once again as Braev turned to examine his daughter’s face. 

“Edea, could you remind me where the kettle is? Surely it must be time for your mother to have some tea.” 

Edea obliged, and the Duke followed his daughter into the kitchen. Once they were out of Mahzer’s earshot, he spoke. 

“Don’t let your mother know, but I’m leaving first thing in the morning. My men will be joining me on the other side of the Perennial Forest in a forest in a fortnight, but I have something else to tend to first.” 

He continued speaking, hushed and fast even as Edea attempted to interject. 

“My apothecaries have read of a flower that grows only in the heart of the forest; near impossible to find, but it is said that it has magical abilities sent from the Celestials. If I could find it—”

“You’ve got to be joking,” Edea said, furrowing her brow up at her father. “It’s a week’s journey through the thinnest parts of the forest. How long will it take you to travel through the thicket? Eight days? More? And all that, for an plant that might not even exist? You and mother don’t believe in Crystalism.” 

Braev sighed, and Edea shrunk into herself when she saw how tired his face was, how worn his body was from shouldering the responsibility of a nation. 

“It’s the only option I have left, Edea. It’s all we have left. Your mother…” 

Neither of them attempted to finish the sentence. 

The Duke drew himself up to his full height and regarded his daughter once again, all fatigue erased from his figure. 

“You have done more than has ever been expected of you, to have cared for your mother for this long, to have sacrificed more than I could have asked of you to be at her side. Is there...Is there anything I could get you?”

Edea quirked her head to the side, and hesitated for hardly a second before speaking.

“I’d like nothing more than an adventure.”

 

\---

 

The trees of the forest stretched on for all eternity, their black branches blending and weaving within each other until they blotted out the night sky. Braev led his horse by his reigns. The animal had grown weary after three days of nonstop traveling, but Braev was worried that an extended slumber in the cold would lead into an eternal one. Because of this, he lead on. 

He had not seen or heard another human since he had parted with his family; there was the occasional sound of wildlife moving through the underbrush and bird calls, but aside from that, there was silence. 

The druggists that had introduced him to the flower had not been able to pinpoint and exact location where it could be found. They had insisted that it was a pure white; impossible to mistake for any other fauna, but what that meant, the man had no idea. There were very little florets in the Perennial Forest, and those that Braev did see were common Eternian bitter blossoms, or Florish holly. 

Braev had been so focused on examining the underside of tree trunks for anything unusual that he failed to notice the underfoot terrain slowly turn from snow to hard stone. It wasn’t until his horse stopped and pulled against its reigns, causing Braev to snap out of his trance. 

Ahead of him loomed a castle, taller than it was wide. It had multiple pointed turrets, but Braev could not identify any sign of heavy weaponry perched at any of the windows. They had all be fastened shut, it appeared, and the curtains draw to a close at every one of them. There were no human tracks in the snow aside from Braev’s. As large as the castle was, the Duke found it hard to have been built without anyone realizing it existed, but he had never read of this location on any map before. 

Whoever it had once belonged to, it was long abandoned now. Braev tugged on his horse’s reins, urging the creature forward. Even if it was less than welcoming, the interior would still provide dry shelter where they could rest for the night. 

They approached the gate, and it took nothing more than a shove for it to open. 

“I know it’s hardly respectable to let a horse sleep where its master does, but I’d suppose there’s enough room in here for both of us to spread out tonight, Agis,” Braev muttered, reaching up to scratch Agis between the ears. The grand hall wasn’t homey by any means, but it was surprisingly dustless and free of any signs of pests. Braev draped his greatcoat over a fainting couch that stood at the center of the room.

Despite the fact that he could not detect a draft coming through the heavy stone walls, Braev could still hear an odd whistling sound echo faintly around the hall. He paced around the room, attempting to find the source. It seemed to be loudest near the south wall, opposite from where Braev had entered. There stood another door, smaller and less grand than its northern companion. Braev crossed this one as well. 

It lead him into the courtyard. The whistling was clearer here, and to Braev, it sounded almost like the panflutes that Norendese shepherds were partial to playing. The yard was richly decorated. There were statues, from diminutive fairies to larger-than-life heroes, and some small fountains that must have once been beautiful when there had been water running. Braev paid none of these a second look, however, as he brushed past a maze of rose bushes, called to follow the sound. 

On the other side of the rose thicket, Braev found himself staring upon the most beautiful flower he had ever seen. 

It was displayed proudly on top of a marble pedestal, safe from the elements under a glass cloche. The white petals seemed to illuminate the night. As Braev drew closer, he saw that there were quite a few wilted petals surrounding the flower, and that the rose itself was smaller than he first thought it to be. Still, there was no denying—it had no equal. It was absolutely certain in his mind that this was the flower that would bring his wife back to health. 

He lifted off the top of the cloche, gloved hands shaking.

There was a terrible screeching metal sound from behind him, and before Braev could reach for his sword, there was a blunt pressure, the taste of iron in his mouth, and dark nothingness. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Leave a review if you're so inclined. :)


End file.
